anyone ever had a hard drive UNFORMAT itself?

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:22 pm

this is what i've been dealing with today.

my work computer, a quadcore xeon, xp sp3 system has a system drive, an audio drive, and sample drive (which also doubles as an internal backup drive and temporary video storage when i do video projects). i went to access the sample drive with the intent to pull off some files, and when i clicked on it in explorer it said: "this drive is not formatted, would you like to format it now?" to which i clicked no because i've had this drive working fine for 4 years now, and it was definitely formatted and working yesterday and before was full of my huge sample libraries and other stuff.

i then decide i should reboot and check it out in bios to see if there were any issues with the drive showing up there. it posted, but said the capacity of the sample drive was 0.0 GB (when it should read 500). so then i decided i'd see if i'd get the same "unformatted" message in windows upon restarting AND!!!! BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! (Stop 0x0000007A) it wouldn't boot normally it wouldn't boot in safe mode or the most recent working configuration deal either.

right. so then my sample drive says it's unformatted, my system drive (which appeared to have no errors) wouldn't boot, i'm at a loss so i pull the computer apart and disconnect the offending sample drive and now the computer works fine... other than the fact that i could really use the gigs upon gigs of samples that are on the messed up hard drive i took out.

i'm gonna try hooking up the drive in another computer to see if there's any difference and might hand it off to a friend who knows a thing or two about recovery but i figured i'd post here to see if anyone has any insight, or has had this happen to them or if i've just had the weirdest computer malfunction ever. i've got almost everything backedup up externally so it's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's a pain in the ass (gotta buy a new hard drive and spend days reloading my sample sets) and i'm just trying to figure out what the hell is going on here.

thanks!
dave

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:33 pm

Sounds like the drive failed. It happens. That's why you have backups. Suck it up and get a new drive. Even if you're able to get it working again, if it's done this once, I wouldn't use it for anything important.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:41 pm

Yet one more reason I stay well away from anything "Winblows".

Also, please do the following immediately :

Go buy yourself a Network Attached Storage drive, a "NAS" drive, and hook it up to your local network hub.

You can go to NewEgg.com and get 2TB for well under 200 bucks.

Then, as soon as you get home, turn that thing on,

AND BACKUP EVERYTHING YOU OWN.

Good Lord already. Nothing is less fun than reading, yet again, someone losing a hard drive, and not having a backup anywhere.

Cheers

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:25 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:Yet one more reason I stay well away from anything "Winblows".

FFS. If a hard drive is going to die, it doesn't matter what OS you're using.

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:35 pm

just to clarify as i know i was rambling: i do have everything i need backed up. i wholeheartedly agree that regardless of your OS, covering your ass and backing up data is just about the most important thing you can do when working with computers & digital audio. i've got most things on two different external drives, so no worries there. i was really just curious to see if anyone had ever had a drive fail in this way, i've had drives fail before but i've never had them appear as an unformatted drive when they do, it just caught me off guard, ...and honestly i needed to rant because i'm bummed that i'm gonna loose quite a few hours installing a new drive and restoring my sample sets, when i could be making/editing music.

hey but that's why i still have my 4 track hanging around. on with the rocking

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:09 pm

John Jeffers wrote:
Nick Sevilla wrote:Yet one more reason I stay well away from anything "Winblows".
FFS. If a hard drive is going to die, it doesn't matter what OS you're using.

With hard drives it's not IF, but WHEN. I think the laws of physics pretty much dictate that a platter can't spin at 7200 rpm, or 10krpm forever no matter what the OS, manufacturer, conditions are. I guess maybe in the vacuum of space. But even there, the solar wind, micrometeorites, etc. would take it out eventually.

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:17 pm

It sounds like a MFT error / corruption.

http://www.ntfs.com/quest14.htm

TheRealRoach · Post by **TheRealRoach** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:59 am

+1 on likelihood of master file table corruption. This happened to me once and was repaired fairly easily with all data intact.

This can also be caused by intermittent power and/or data cable (whether IDE, FW, USB, whatever). I had a problem with a bad power cable and it would cause the drive to try to mount and dismount many times over a few seconds. This F-ED things up pretty good on that drive.

b3groover · Post by **b3groover** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:52 am

Yep. I just fixed a drive last night that had this exact same problem. Worked right before I read this thread and when I tried to open it, it claimed it was not formated.

The solution:

Start ----> Run ----> type "chkdsk E: /r" (no quotes) where "E" is the letter of the drive you're having issues with. Press "enter" and watch Windows do it's magic.

kingmetal · Post by **kingmetal** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:46 pm

b3groover wrote:Yep. I just fixed a drive last night that had this exact same problem. Worked right before I read this thread and when I tried to open it, it claimed it was not formated.

The solution:

Start ----> Run ----> type "chkdsk E: /r" (no quotes) where "E" is the letter of the drive you're having issues with. Press "enter" and watch Windows do it's magic.

This is the right thing to do to fix that type of error but like everyone else has said: if you are using a drive for critical storage and it fails in any way, your best bet is to replace the drive even if the errors can be corrected.

And I've actually found newer versions of 'Winblows' to be better at communicating impending hard drive failures than OSX through built-in S.M.A.R.T. monitoring / notification. I believe OSX has S.M.A.R.T. built into Disk Utility but I've never seen any kind of system-wide notification like Windows (and Vista) has. I could very well be wrong though!

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:50 pm

holy shit i am having the worst luck this month. so i got the new sample drive going and all my data restored and up and running again about 2 weeks ago and got back to projects. and BAM! yesterday my boot drive won't boot! thankfully i was able to run chkdsk from the system recovery console and fix it... but here i am once more, twice in a month; replacing a damn hard drive... computers are out to get me, or they at least don't want me to get anything done in a timely fashion.

it's amazing how much we rely on shit that's destined to fail.

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:48 pm

Entropy's a bitch.

dave watkins · Post by **dave watkins** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:30 am

indeed

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:54 am

dave watkins wrote: ..., my system drive (which appeared to have no errors) wouldn't boot, ....

You said the above in yer first post.

It is possible that something is wrong that you have not yet identified.

I am not sure that the failure of the second drive could cause the failure to boot that you report.

It is conceivable that you may have a motherboard problem, a power supply problem, or (less likely, I think) even a virus ...

TheRealRoach · Post by **TheRealRoach** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:27 am

dave watkins wrote:holy shit i am having the worst luck this month. so i got the new sample drive going and all my data restored and up and running again about 2 weeks ago and got back to projects. and BAM! yesterday my boot drive won't boot!

I'd be willing to bet that it's an intermittent data or power connection to the hard drive (or both).

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